Dinosaur Dig! – Kinetic sand small world play

I hope you are loving this first week of our Storybook Summer 2015 – with amazing Dinosaur Activities, crafts and fun. Today we welcome back one of last year’s guest bloggers Emma from Adventures of Adam as she shares another fantastic Dinosaur based activity around the book Dinosaur Dig! [affiliate link] by Penny Dale. Please do go back and find the other fantastic dinosaur books and activities we have featured this week from – stomping dinosaur feet, DIY Dinosaur Track Stamps, Dinosaur Science and Dinosaur Dancing. So without further ado I hand over Rainy Day Mum to Emma.

After participating in last years Story Book Summer series, my son’s love for dinosaurs has increased significantly. Dinosaurs, transport and numbers are his three favourite things. You can imagine our excitement when we came across “Dinosaur Dig!” by Penny Dale [affiliate link]- a book that involves diggers, dinosaurs and a bit of counting!

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In this wonderful picture book, ten dinosaurs work together to create a swimming pool. From digging a hole, shoveling gravel, earth and rock, lifting blocks of stone and mixing the cement – the dinosaurs do it all. The book gave us the perfect opportunity to re-enact the story and create our own dinosaur swimming pool.

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Dinosaur Dig – Kinetic Sand Play

I made a batch of kinetic sand (cornflour, sand, washing up liquid and water) and placed it our Tuff Spot. I added ten different types of diggers and ten dinosaurs. Immediately Adam allocated a dinosaur to each digger and attempted to get each dinosaur to fit inside. The kinetic sand gave Adam and the dinosaurs a fantastic substance to dig in and explore. They got to work digging a hole – easier said than done with kinetic sand!

Next Adam and the dinosaurs used the kinetic sand as cement to build the walls around their swimming pool. We used a combination of Duplo bricks and wooden blocks with kinetic sand in between each piece. At first Adam attempted to use a lolly stick as a trowel but in the end resorted to using his fingers. It certainly was a sticky and messy procedure but lots of fun.

Finally we added a blue container filled with water. The dinosaurs had created their swimming pool.

“Ten dinosaurs playing. Playing in their new pool. The pool they built for themselves! Splash! Splash! Splash!”

Adam had a wonderful time getting the dinosaurs to swim in the pool. Adam spent ages looking at the book where the dinosaurs were swimming. First he noticed that his dinosaurs did not have a slide. He resorted to using a wooden block. He then realised that in the illustration the diggers are in a line in the background. Adam had to do the same and explained that the diggers were watching the dinosaurs swim. Adam played with the dinsoaurs and diggers for at least an hour and repeated sections of the story.

I am awful at tidying Adam’s play activities. The next day the Tuff Spot, dinosaurs and diggers were still outside. However, the home made kinetic sand had dried out and had turned into a chalky substance that was hard but turned to dust when you moved it in yours hands. To my surprise Adam acted out the story completely by himself using the repetitive language in the book. He went inside a retrieved the blue container we had used for the swimming pool and set about creating the pool again. Dinosaur Dig is certainly a huge hit in our household!

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About Emma Edwards

During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with Adam as part of that promise. Emma has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.

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